Thomas Higgins
Professor of Art

M.F.A., University of Wisconsin-Madison
M.S., University of Wisconsin-Madison
B.A. cum laude, Maryville College

Tom Higgins teaches painting and drawing courses with a commitment to help his students to develop their perceptual skills and consciousness of a visual language.  He encourages each student to have a dialog with the visual world, with art history as well as contemporary art, and to discover an honest, personal voice.  A professionally active landscape painter, Tom brings his creative passion to his teaching and openly shares his experience with his students.  His work is currently exhibited in galleries in Maine and on Long Island, New York, and has been shown across the U.S. as well as in Canada, Hungary, France, and Iceland.   Greenhut Galleries describes his place in Maine Art:
    
A plein air painter of the first degree.  Tom Higgins balances both art and nature – the act of painting and the subject of his painting – in equal measure at the tip of his brush.  His enthusiasm for his subject – usually a respectful view of a solitary Maine prospect – and his interest in technique, applying paint quickly before the moment passes, has propelled him to the front ranks of contemporary Maine landscape painters.

An avid hiker, Tom is fully committed to experiential learning through the direct stimulation of the senses.  To that end, he is intrigued by opportunities to collaborate with faculty in other disciplines to immerse students in the process of personally engaging with the natural world.